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I felt bad for the owner, cost him 50bucks for me to roll that back correctly. I had to hand roll all the hose out. Was a pain. Just kidding. Didn't charge him. It was a cold call. Called him at work and told him I got this new awesome pressure thingamagig. He said let me talk to the wife. I said I'm in your driveway ready to make your sewer sparkle. Ah ah ok go ahead he says.

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Did my first clearing of a backed up main. Went out with cable and it felt really bad. Gave up quick with owners blessing. I then pushed warthog to spot, turned it on, 5 sec, poof, line cleared.
Several other bad spots, so went in with root ranger ( I love the jet engine sound of the rr and water spraying back out of the clean out 10 ft in the air) cleaned out 5 really bad spots, it sparkles now. I love my jetter and nozzles.
Robert

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How far did you have to push the nozzle to? Did you have any pressure while doing that? You doing the jetting with camera yet?

About 45 ft,
Owner had 2 c/o, 1 at sidewalk.
No pressure, was an easy push.
Yeah jetting with camera, just playing it safe.
Right now I'm going to city with jetter then working my way back with rr to clear the spots the warthog missed.
I position rr at problem then pull camera back 10 ft and go back to confirm, then repeat. (per ricks advice) smile,
This job had 3 nasty spots. Root Ranger prevailed.

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Had my first real test with jetter today.
5 bad root spots.
Clean out in back of house.
3 inch c/i for the first 50.
2 bad spots at 98 and 107. And these spots were right after AND before bends so going past w/ rr wasn't working. Had to use warthog. The problem was getting both camera and nozzle at the same spot. I had so much friction loss that only with all the tubs showers and h/o flushing toilets was I able to line up nozzle and clean these up.
I also tried to clear the line first with jetter but couldn't get to these bad spots with water in line. Had to pull out and cable first to restore flow.
I also had to use the pulse action to get past a tight 3 inch c/i spot and 90 ish ft.
I learned a lesson cuz I bragged about how awesome their line was going to be. So I was on the hook. 100 ft out in clay is 1 thing, but pushing through 3 inch c/i for the first 50 and about 8 bends and getting both camera and nozzle to spot at same time w/o taking chances with the camera was tough on this job.
But in the end job was done and I got paid. Best part is learned a lesson I didn't have to pay for.
Next time I won't act so tough under sketchy circumstance.

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Instead of cable, why didn't the warthog work to blow the roots out? When you say "friction loss" what are you referring to?

There were 2 bad spots before the spot that was the actual blockage spot. And I couldn't get there because of the line full of water. Now it's possible I could had preserved and got there eventually but with the h/o standing over my shoulder I wanted to make the job look like it was moving get at a brisk pace.
Friction loss? With the jetter hose in the line I was fighting pushing past that AND the long run in cast and many turns.

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try holding the hose and seesnake cable tight together. the hose will help the camera pull in. of course you need to keep the camera away from the jet head. also i find using the smaller camera and no skids. just not enough room with 3'' pipe.

8 bends in cast is very difficult. plastic is slicker.

having fun yet

rick.

phoebe it is

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try holding the hose and seesnake cable tight together. the hose will help the camera pull in. of course you need to keep the camera away from the jet head. also i find using the smaller camera and no skids. just not enough room with 3'' pipe.

8 bends in cast is very difficult. plastic is slicker.

having fun yet

rick.

Hey rick, thanks, I like the idea of holding them together. I'll try that next time.
But I don't have a smaller camera. And the big one's gotta do for now.
Yeah having fun, thanks again.

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Cast is an absolute ***** at the best of time. We are lucky we only have 4" cast iron. Plungerman we all want to be seen to know what we are doing especially when we are being scoped by the Client. Full marks for being humble enough to admit you were "over excited' with your new rig. We all have hard ones and keeping ones cool is real hard too. You have the good fortune of Rick being nearby to help. We are pretty much onour own out here and learn through the school of hard knocks.

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Cast is an absolute ***** at the best of time. We are lucky we only have 4" cast iron. Plungerman we all want to be seen to know what we are doing especially when we are being scoped by the Client. Full marks for being humble enough to admit you were "over excited' with your new rig. We all have hard ones and keeping ones cool is real hard too. You have the good fortune of Rick being nearby to help. We are pretty much onour own out here and learn through the school of hard knocks.

Thanks cleanmen, I did lose my cool once. Pushing the camera was extra tough, after hauling buns for 3 hours non stop,,,, as I was pushing it I had to let go or kink seesnake. So after 3 slip offs and hands in gravel and owner bugging me I got up turned off jetter and walked around to front of house, and blurted out a loud, arrrgggg. H/o went through house and met me promptly in front of house this while hearing the wife say, what's going on? I explained to h/o I was mad at myself for trying to go to fast and risking damaging my expensive equipment. He had a worried look, but I quickly turned it around during with a big .
Yeah rick is a real good dude. When I came back 2 tacos short on his order he kept his cool and barely showed his disappointment

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A Plumber called me today to jet and camera a line for him. He couldn't get it to flow. The problem was only 25 feet away. The warthog couldn't clear or get thru, got flow going with tiny blade then tried root ranger and couldn't get through, tried warthog again, couldn't get through had flow though, tried med blade couldn't get through, but did manage to plow into about 2 feet of it with med blade. I didn't want to give up, but the plumber who hired me sold h/o on a dig up. Spent about 2 1/2 hrs got paid so ok but bummed. On way home was thinking maybe it dove down as it should to tie into deep city in alley, and maybe I was spraying mostly top of pipe, it was definitely off set at the joint at said spot. Was wondering if I had a screw driver nozzle could I have forced myself was through 3-5 feet of impacted sewer with my machine. I'm going stay in contact with the plumber to see what it was I didn't get through

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a rootranger nozzle facing forward on a fiberglass push rod will cut through concrete. ben is an expert with this method.

the rootranger doesn't have good forward penetration on a solid root blockage. the warthog is also slow. remember your power is being drowned out by the stoppage and water. but a nozzle like a rootranger forward will cut through a tree and you've seen me demo that